My family was on the 4:00 pm LHR-SEA flight yesterday which was ultimately cancelled. The problems began at the gate when a disabled teenager was freaking out about getting on the plane. His mom and grandparents calmed him down but he started freaking out again once on the plane (yelling, wailing, screaming that he didn’t want to fly) as we pushed back from the gate, and sat in line for take off.

The flight attendants in my opinion let this situation go on for way too long. The pilot announced that we had to get out of line because of a “medical concern” with a passenger. The plane sat on the tarmac for about two hours before the family and flight crew decided to remove the boy and his mom from the flight. We then waited for the stairs to be brought out to the plane, their bags to be removed from the hold, and the plane to be refueled. The pilot then announced the crew couldn’t take off because they would be over their work hours limit.

After another hour we were bussed back to the terminal and given hotel and transport vouchers. My question is, am I entitled to any compensation? I had to pay $200 to change a connecting flight tonight on another carrier for a separately booked trip (taking our kid to college, which she’s now late for) as well as additional airport parking fees for two cars and I’m out a night on our VRBO.

Any advice appreciated. I understand people are people and I’m trying to be compassionate about the situation but the flight crew should’ve addressed/handled the situation hours before they did and prevented this cancellation. We’re scheduled to land at SEA 24 hours later than scheduled.